Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican banks’ outstanding loans are
likely to grow by at least 15 percent this year, according to
the head of the nation’s banking and securities regulatory
agency.

“We expect a relatively good year,” Guillermo Babatz,
president of the National Banking and Securities Commission,
said in an interview at Bloomberg’s Mexico City office.
“They’re going to be growing all across the board.”

Mexican banks’ total outstanding loans rose 15 percent in
nominal terms in June from the same month a year ago to 2.58
trillion pesos ($196 billion), according to CNBV, as the banking
and securities regulator is known.

Outstanding consumer loans rose 24 percent in June,
compared with the same period in 2011, according to the agency.
Babatz said bank loan growth this year will include expansion in
lending for housing, businesses, government and consumers.

The forecasted loan growth would be more than four times
the 3.7 percent that economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect
Mexico’s economy to expand this year.

‘Keep Expanding’

“We are going to keep expanding at this pace,” Marcos
Martinez Gavica, the chief executive officer of the bank, said
at an event in Mexico City on July 26. “We have demand for
loans, therefore we are having good results and we are beating
the market.”

Babatz, who plans to leave his post when President Felipe
Calderon’s administration concludes at the end of November, said
regulators need more autonomy and an increased ability to make
sanctions public.

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank, said last month
its Mexican unit paid a $27.5 million fine to the nation’s
regulators for non-compliance with money-laundering systems and
controls. Babatz said Mexican rules prevented regulators from
going public with the case until the bank decided to drop the
case in court.

“It was actually quite unfortunate that the timing of
disclosure of this sanction was chosen by the bank, not by us,”
he said. “The most important thing that we need to do is to be
able to go out with the findings that we have and to publicize
the sanctions.”